Yeah, that would've been nice. I was thinking last year of coming back, but I thought 27 years was enough. At the beginning I wasn't sure about the rule changes — so many penalties, so many calls. It's opened up the game, but I still think there are too many teams. ... I don't want to mention any teams, but it's a waste of money to watch them.

There's a ton of interesting stuff there, including quite a bit about Larionov's new wine-making business.

It turns out he'll be moving to California in the fall, where his daughters will be going to school. While Larionov started his career in Vancouver, I'll never forget his time in San Jose — especially his heroics in the 1993-94 playoffs when the 8th-seeded Sharks took out Detroit in Round 1.

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About Me

A sportswriter at The Globe and Mail, James covers the NHL and the game of hockey. He is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, a radio and TV analyst with TSN and was the NHL network manager at SB Nation from 2008 to 2010. A graduate of Thompson Rivers and Ryerson universities, James grew up in Kamloops, B.C. — one of Canada's great hockey cities — and was a season ticket holder in the Blazers' glory years.

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